"Sea Lion Woman" is one of those songs that has emerged from the mists of American history to become part of its cultural heritage. No one knows who wrote it. No one knows quite what it means. No one even knows what its name really is. (Wikipedia lists six variations of the name, including "C-Line Woman.")

But since it was recorded by mid-20th century musicologists working in the field, it has attracted the interest of many admiring musicians, including Nina Simone, who recorded a version in 1964 and, more recently, Feist.

Add Tim O'Brien to the list.

The bluegrass luminary plans to work up a version of the song as part of a project devoted to one of the most consequential American musicologists, Alan Lomax. The project is being organized by Jayme Stone, a Boulder-based Juno Award-winning banjo player and inveterate explorer of musical byways.

Called The Lomax Project, it involves a select group of musicians who plan to gather through Wednesday at the Chautauqua Community House and draw inspiration from the vast archive of recordings made by Lomax. Their goal is to develop fresh material, and this "collaboratory," as Stone calls it, will culminate in a Wednesday performance of the material. The show is now sold out.

The music on the concert program, in other words, doesn't exactly exist yet. It will come only after the invited musicians "revive, recycle and re-imagine" the music preserved and perpetuated by Lomax's field work.

Tim O Brien is one of six musicians taking part in The Lomax Project. (The Lomax Project/Courtesy photo)

"We're just links in a chain, and we're just going to forge a new link this week," O'Brien said. "There's a little bit of pressure to pull it off, but I think people are really interested in the process."

Ticket buyers may get a glimpse of the process during several workshops, starting Saturday, led by the project's musicians, including Stone, O'Brien, Greg Garrison, Ron Miles, Margaret Glaspy and Moira Smiley. From 10 a.m.-noon Saturday, the musicians will discuss their chosen source material from the Lomax recordings and how they'll work with the music in collaboration with the other musicians to create something new. Later that day, 2-4 p.m., five of the musicians will teach classes in their areas of expertise.

Saturday's workshops require paid tickets, but from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, the project will offer a free program on the Lomax archives and the process of making songs. The week also includes school and private events.

Alan Lomax began collecting folk music with his musicologist father, John Lomax, in the 1930s. Alan Lomax was instrumental in exposing to the world the music of many artists who are considered icons today, including Muddy Waters, Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie, though the deeper value of his work is in its breadth.

The Association of Cultural Equality, which was founded by Lomax, who died in 2002, has digitized every sound recording -- even mic checks -- made by Lomax between 1946 and 1991. That's more than 17,400 audio files available for free listening on the organization's website. The Library of Congress holds thousands of earlier Lomax recordings. Together, the collections open our ears to a vast number of performers and locations around the world.

He has listened to hundreds of hours of obscure recordings and has been sending preliminary ideas to other project musicians. He's especially interested in Jelly Roll Morton's "I'm Alabama Bound."

"We're going to walk out this week with an entirely new repertoire," Stone said, adding, "We want this old music to inhabit our world."

The series of events at Chautauqua are the launch of what Stone envisions as a two- or three-year project of bringing various musicians together in "collaboratories" around the Lomax archive. Stone plans to record the new material produced during the project.

O'Brien has experience at this kind of thing. He once updated the traditional "Wave the Ocean, Wave the Sea," recorded by Lomax, and added new lyrics. When Stone invited him to participate in "The Lomax Project," O'Brien's answer was, "Yeah, count me in."

"It was a rare opportunity to take a week to dedicate yourself to something like this," he said.

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